C8B VoD'leH (Emperor) Class
Another development of a Capital Ship on the venerable D7 hull, the VoD'leH (Emperor) Class is a more radical design than the earlier C7 Qo'NoS (Kronos) Class, designed to replace her as a Battlecruiser and along with the larger C9A pumwI' (Accuser) Class Dreadnought, to replace the failed C8 Ber'Taa (Bird of Blood) Class. She employs some of the latest in Klingon Technology to give her a formidable punch for a vessel of her size. Development The original D7 qItI'tinga' (Great Powerful Conqueror) Class was designed as a replacement for the ageing D6A Kl'ar (Leader) Class. The Kl'ar had already proven to be increasingly obsolescent by the late 2230s and a larger, more capable Cruiser was required. Essentially a scaled up and "fleshed out" D6A, the D7 out performed her smaller progenitor in every way. She was faster, more heavily armed, more heavily armoured and shielded and possessed the latest in sensor technology available to the Klingon Empire at that time. Given her basis on a proven design, the introduction of the D7 proceeded quickly beginning in 2242. Production was accelerated, as were withdrawals of the D6A, following the disastrous incursions into Federation space in 2244, 2246 and most seriously in 2248 at the Battle of Bernard. Complete replacement had occurred by 2250, with 2/3rds of the D6A's in service being transferred to the Romulan Star Empire and the remainder being converted for specialised duties. In 2255, after the acquisition of Cloaking Technology from the Romulans, the qItI'tinga' received her first refit, becoming the D7A. Captains were ordered to only engage or disengage the Cloaking Device when outside of Federation sensor range, so as to keep the device a secret from Starfleet Intelligence. This directive was followed successfully for many years, and Federation analysts were unaware of the usage of Cloaking Devices by the Klingon Empire until the beginning of the 2270s. Further refinement to the qItI'tinga' design came in 2264 with the fitting of Heavy Disruptors in place of one pair of standard Disruptors. This gave the resulting D7B considerable forward firepower, able to go toe-to-toe with the Federation Constitution Class. The many stand-offs of the 2260s between the Klingon Defence Force and Starfleet nearly always involved these two classes, although even in the 4-Day War of 2266 they never truly faced off against each other, one or the other withdrawing before a killing blow could be dealt. In 2270, the qItI'tinga' was refit into her current, D7C form. This involved a considerable overhaul of all internal and external systems. Construction of new vessels was also authorised to replace losses in the 2260s and to bolster the strength of the KDF. The new refit was also explicitly designed to be more powerful than the Federation Constitution Class, although little did the designers know that she herself was being refit into a more powerful form at that same time. When this new Constitution Class Refit was first encountered in the early 2270s, the natural response was to design an even bigger Cruiser to overcome her, as the qItI'tinga' had the original Constitution Class. At the same time, the highly flawed C8 Ber'Taa (Bird of Blood) Class was becoming a liability to the KDF and whilst the new C9 Puw'Leth (Sawblade) Class Battleship had entered service as a partial replacement, there remained a considerable tactical gap between her and the qItI'tinga' that needed to be filled. Rather than rely on massed Photon Torpedo armament as the failed Ber'Taa had, the new "Cruiser Killer" would keep the modest design planform of the smaller qItI'tinga' and use an enhanced Primary and Heavy Weapons array to provide adequate firepower, which along with stronger shields, gave her the required performance boost. whilst also kepping costs and construction times low. Such compromises are inevitably either resounding successes or abject failures, and fortunately for the beleaguered Klingon Defence Force in the mid-2270s, the new C7 Qo'NoS (Kronos) Class, named after the Klingon Homeworld, proved a resounding success. The prototype was launched in 2276, with production commencing shortly after. Although the Qo'NoS was a considerable improvement on the qItI'tinga', and went a long way to replacing the Ber'Taa, the rate of technological progress in the 2270s was such that by the end of the decade, developments in the Federation (such as the Excelsior Project) and the Romulan Star Empire had started to outpace her. Along with changing doctrines, which called for a focus on lightning strikes by Birds of Prey backed up by Capital Ships, a new warship would soon be required to fully replace the Ber'Taa and supplement the Qo'NoS. For many years both the Klingon Empire and the Federation had been experimenting with ways to improve the yield of their standard Photon Torpedo. Gradual improvements were made, with various marks of torpedo having greater destructive power, range and reliability. The most profound increase however involved a process known as trilithium depletion. This process increased the yield of Photon Torpedoes by one hundred percent. Trilithium depletion had drawbacks, however. The depletion process during the manufacture of the weapon was time consuming and very expensive, not to mention dangerous. Many munitions factories suffered premature detonations of these devices during the manufacturing process and were severely damaged. This danger proved too great for the Federation to employ these weapons, but in the Empire, they were seen as the only way to increase the firepower of Capital Ships to keep up in increasing arms race. The VoD'leH was the first class designed to use the new torpedo. The new Heavy Photon Torpedo required special munitions storage modules and the torpedo itself was built only to fire from a specific type of reinforced launch tube. This eliminated the risk of foolish captains attempting to use Heavy Photon Torpedo munitions in a standard Photon Torpedo Tube. This required considerable changes the bridge module to accommodate the new weapon, although with the other changes being made to the hull design. including an additional pair of warp nacelles and a reinforced impulse deck, this was considered acceptable. The original design also called for a pair of Heavy Disruptors and a Primary Weapons array of six Disruptors, although this was eventually scaled back to four. The most amazing thing about the VoD'leH was that her design and construction was handled solely by the Wo’ ChenwI’Duj (Imperial Shipyards) in orbit around Qo’NoS opposite Praxis. Master Shipbuilder Jogh Kenka started the project and maintained strict control of it from beginning to end. The designs were completed, simulator tested, and approved all within the span of eight months and construction of the prototype proceeded smoothly from that point, finishing ahead of schedule and under budget two years later in 2282. After the trial run of the prototype, the High Council was so impressed with the ship and her designers that the next ship construction contract, whatever it would be, was granted to Wo’ ChenwI’Duj. An interesting side note to all of this, Jogh Kenka personally duelled with more than a dozen representatives of various weapons manufacturing and ship building concerns when they attempted to use political influence to interfere with the design and construction of the VoD'leH. Kenka won every duel, but lost an eye and three fingers in the process. Kenka since retired from Wo’ ChenwI’Duj and became Chief Advisor to the High Council in naval construction matters. In 2290, in a clandestine refit the VoD'leH had her Heavy Disruptors replaced with a pair of Frequency Modulated Particle Accelerator Cannons or FMPA Cannons. Whilst not as effective against hull plating as Heavy Disruptors, the FMPA Cannon is devastating against shielding, and the addition of a pair of these formidable weapons to the VoD'leH gave her even greater firepower for her size. Operational History The VoD'leH had her combat debut during the opening shots of the Organian Conflict. She proved extremely able, a match even for the latest Excelsior Class Battlecruisers in use by Starfleet. Her Captains, chosen from among the finest graduates of the Elite Command Academy, added to the mystique of the new warship, which were compared in the Federation to the Tiger Shark of Earth's oceans. Fast, predatory and deadly. Mixing daunting firepower with good speed and manoeuvrability, the presence of a VoD'leH usually signified a costly battle for Starfleet in those early days. The introduction of new classes into Starfleet gradually offset the advantages the VoD'leH had, but she remained a dangerous adversary, and proved to be so even for the Interstellar Concordium during their invasion in the War of Pacification beginning in 2289. Fast and manoeuvrable enough to evade the ISC Dreadnoughts and with enough firepower to face even the vaunted Star Cruisers, the VoD'leH was backbone of Klingon resistance efforts. During the Ormong of 2291, the VoD'leH was coveted heavily by all sides, with General Chang and his second in command, Colonel Thok Mak, commanding from the chair of one of these warships. The replacement of her Heavy Disruptors with Frequency Modulated Particle Accelerator Cannons gave her a mighty punch, bringing her back to the forefront of Klingon Battle tactics. Several were lost in the bloody battles of that war, although production accelerated in the aftermath to make up for these losses. Losses again mounted during the General War, although this was down to the ill-thought-out tactics of Melkor rather than any problems with the vessels themselves. Again, production continued to help offset these losses in the immediate post-war period. Apocrypha The loss of the Tal'Ihnor Gates System and the explosion of the moon Praxis left the Empire with a critical energy shortage. The ecological damage wrought to the homeworld of Qo'NoS also put a halt to any plans for the further construction of larger Klingon warship designs, such as the C9A pumwI' (Accuser) Class. The VoD'leH was an economical design, being based on the core structure of the old D7. She became the largest class still in production until her gradual obsolescence rendered this impractical in the 2320s. In many ways she inspired the design of the D18 Vor'Cha (Attacker) Class, and remained in service as a Heavy Cruiser when the newer warship replaced her in the Battlecruiser role in the mid-2350s. Specifications * Class: 'Heavy Battlecruiser * 'Hull Type Designation: '''KBCH * '''Length: 412m * Crew: 505 * Warp Nacelles: '''4 * '''Maximum Sublight Speed: 3075 k/s (30.75 Mk/s) * Cruise Warp Factor Speed: wf 8.2 * Safe Maximum Warp Factor Speed: wf 9.0 * Hull Rating: '370 HSF * 'Shield Rating: 573 FSP * Sensor Rating: 600 SRU * Armament and Equipment: ** Primary *** 4 × Disruptor Cannon ** Secondary *** 1 × Heavy Photon Torpedo Tube ** Heavy *** 2 × Frequency Modulated Particle Accelerator Cannon (FMPA) ** Advanced *** None ** Equipment *** Tractor Beam Emitter *** Klingon-Type Cloaking Device *** Probes *** 2 × D'ktagh (Dagger) Shuttle Ships in Service (2292) IKS VoD'leH IKS TegH'GaH IKS JeH'jhong IKS Ma'tlhej IKS GhuH'nov IKS Nov'Hoch IKS Yinlu'taH IKS BajnISlu' IKS QaStaHvIS IKS Duy''a'pu' IKS HaDI'baH IKS Heghbe'nal IKS Ta'NoQ IKS NoQ'TaGh IKS Gha'Thoq IKS Tho'Tijq IKS Iw'ej'onj IKS Qo'LiQ IKS NaGH'QoT IKS IqO'NoT IKS Ja'Je'IcH IKS PoQ'KliQu'Ta' Category:Klingon Vessels Category:Cruisers Category:Battlecruisers